newest bag

It has been fun to examine my own process with sewing these totes.  Some bags fly off the machine- literally creating themselves as fast as I can think up an image, word, and find the right fabric.  Others take there time- maybe I'll draft the image over the course of a day, come back to draw it on the fabric a few nights later, open up the sewing machine a week later to stitch the images, so on and so forth.  

Choosing the words is a whole other endeavor entirely.  Sometimes the word will be right there, I know exactly which one I'll choose and it's stamped on without another thought.  This flower bag actually turned out to be one of the more challenging.  Grow, pause, patience, open, fragile, beautiful, and fleeting all came to mind when I saw my image stitched out.  Perhaps I'll have to just make one of each....

new bags

It's interesting for me to look at my process for making a bag.  I often get an idea or inspiration from a bag days or weeks before it's made.  I have a running list of different images and corresponding words I'd like to pair with each one.  Yet, when I finally sit at the sewing table and get out my chalk to draw my image, inevitably the image turns out to be totally different than what I thought I was going to work on.  So far, each bag has been something that was not on one of my lists or something I'd thought of before I sat down to sew.  I think my own openness throughout the process of creating each one has been something novel and enthralling for me.  I'm normally so much more of a planner, yet working within the familiarity of the tote pattern has allowed me to open up more- to allow my creations to truly be created in that space of time that I'm sewing.  Needless to say, I'm having SO much fun making these bags and am looking forward to giving them away soon. 

Thank you to those who have expressed interest in purchasing them- I am slowly putting together orders- though each one is custom-made with a different fabric for the image (I'm working through my scraps pile).  I'm thinking $20 for the smaller tote and $25 for the larger one.  I have a really hard time asking for money for these, though as they are truly a gift for me to be able to make them...so if you want one and have a different price in mind, I'm sure I'd be open to it :) 

Oh!  And I have one more style bag that I've yet to debut.  Waiting for a smaller stamp to come in so I can make a sample to show. 

what i've been working on

My machine has been a-humming and my thread has been unspooling.  I've been pondering the idea of selling things I make but at a loss as to what to make.  I realized that what bothered me most was the idea of just selling 'stuff' to sell it.  I also realized that the handmade goodness I'm most likely to purchase for myself is often inspirational or has a message for the world.  So, I started making bags, with a word to hold on to.  Something to remember as we go through our hum drum days, making the ordinary less ordinary.  These are my first tries- they have a waterproof lining- which I love as it can catch spilled water bottles, hold wet bathing suits or damp produce from the market.  I like the idea of having a story to go with each bag- a kind of- 'if i were a bag, this is what i would want to do with my life' kind of story.  Maybe that's what I'll spend nap time today doing.  In the meantime, without further fanfare...the bags.